Naumann was born Thusnelda Joch in Lörrach, where she was educated at the Hebel Gymnasium, completing her Abitur in 1941.
[1][2] World War II delayed the completion of her dissertation, "Das Pferd in Sage und Brauchtum Japans" (The Horse in Japan's Mythology and Traditions) until 1946, when she became the first woman to receive a doctorate in Japanese studies from that university.
After completing her doctorate, Naumann married a Chinese fellow student and moved to Shanghai until 1954.
In 1970 she completed her Habilitation with a dissertation entitled "Das Umwandeln des Himmelspfeilers" (The Circumambulation of the Pillar of Heaven);[4] she was Professor of Japanese Studies at Freiburg from 1973 until her retirement in 1985.
[3] Naumann's primary focus was the ancient, pre-Buddhist myths and religion of Japan, but she also published an anthology of classical Japanese literature in translation, Die Zauberschale (1973, with Wolfram Naumann) and in her last years was working on Japanese shamanism with the linguist Roy A.